Book Reviews #52

January 27, 2017
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by Sophie Davies

Leo Babauta demonstrates how setting limits in your life means you can work less, increase your efficiency, become more productive, and enjoy a stressless life. The Power Of Less provides achieveable methods for streamlining your life through eliminating unnessary tasks, helping you to identify what is important, and decluttering your everyday life so you can focus on accomplishing your goals.

There is a lot of practical advice packed into such a short read although my only criticism is not everyone will be able to apply it. Leo Babauta's suggestions on how to set limits, work less and enjoy life more relies on having a flexible lifestyle with more autonomy than the average 9-to-5 job allows. If your profession allows you to be flexible with both your time and your habits, The Power Of Less contains solid advice on how you can eliminate unncessary tasks, focus on what's important, and diminish stress to live a happier, more content life.

The Power of Now has become a "highly acclaimed" (depending on who you speak to) spiritual guidebook offering a simple message: to live our lives with happiness and enlightenment we need to live in the present. Eckhart Tolle provides guidance on how live consciously and intentionally through his philosophical and spiritual messages.

The Power of Now is contemporary New Age/spiritual literature; it's a self-help book inspired heavily by religion. The basic premise of the book - to be present in the now, not dwell on the past, and be mindful of our thoughts - is a good one but Eckhart Tolle's voice and the manner in which he writes to his readers is off-putting and often condescending. There is less spiritual wisdom here than pompous New Age babble. In short, I wouldn't recommend it.

Labelled a memoir, Everything That Remains is a collection of moments in Joshua Fields Millburn life with interjections and corrections by his best friend, Ryan Nicodemus. It's a story of one man who "had it all" and gave it up to live a more intentional life driven by happiness instead of money.

If I hadn't received this book for free I probably wouldn't have purchased it, not because the book isn't good but because I'm not usually one for memoirs. "The Minimalists" - Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus - offered their bestselling book for free and, being interested in their other publications, I picked it up to read. It's a short read giving you insight into how money does not guarantee happiness even if you're convinced it will. If you've read or listened to anything by "The Minimalists" previously you'll notice a lot of what they say is repeated over and over and over... I'd recommend watching Minimalism: A Documentary About The Important Things instead.

"An explorer's guide to the world's hidden wonders." Atlas Obscura is a guidebook and friendly tour-guide including travel tips, articles, strange facts, and unique events. If you're an adventurer who likes to get off the beaten track to experience lesser known hidden spots; this books helps you avoid the tourist hotspots in favour of less popular, more wondrously curious places.

As a long time user of the Atlas Obscura website I was super excited about this book. It's a beautiful tome containing more than 600 of the strangest and most curious places in the world. There's a mix of photographs, illustrations, and design work alongside extensive descriptions. It's a book you want to pore over for hours and hours deciding where next to go on your adventures.